By now, comparisons were being made with Paolo Rossi, the inspiration when Italy won the 1982 World Cup.

“Rossi was a champion,” Schillaci said ahead of a semi-final against Argentina that his side were expected to win. “I am an ordinary, modest guy. I just hope I can continue to do what I have been doing.”

He did, opening the scoring with another poacher’s effort, but this time it was not enough. Italy passed England’s record of 499 minutes without conceding at a finals before their goal was breached in the second half – and the fairy tale was finished when they went out on penalties.

Every national newspaper in Italy used the headline ‘End of a dream’ while Gazzetta and Corriere dello Sport simply put ‘NO’ in huge letters on their front pages.

“We deserved to win,” reflected Schillaci. “I think if we had beaten Argentina we would have gone on to win the World Cup.”

That was not quite the end of the Schillaci story, however. The day before West Germany beat Argentina in the final, he grabbed his sixth goal of the tournament in the third-place play-off against England, putting him ahead of Czech Tomas Skuhravy as the tournament’s leading goalscorer.

“After the tournament, I went away to somewhere quiet,” Schillaci says. “Everybody wanted a piece of me but I just wanted to get away from it all, especially after the pain of our semi-final defeat.”

The next time he made the headlines, it would be for a less savoury reason. The following November, he was banned for one game for threatening to have Fabio Poll shot after the Bologna player punched him during an on-pitch row.

By then, the goals were drying up too. He scored only five in the league in the 1990-91 season and six the following campaign. An injury-plagued move to Inter Milan in 1992 failed to revive him and he ended his career in exile – albeit a lucrative one – as the first Italian to play in Japan’s fledgling J-League.

While he was still in Serie A and struggling to regain his World Cup form, Schillaci said: “Even if I were to drop out of the Italian team, I will still have with me for the rest of my life the wonderful memories of Italia ’90.”

He still had them after returning to his home city to run the youth academy he used to play for.

What was clear from talking to Schillaci was that, while he enjoyed reliving past glories when he was asked to play in exhibition matches, he was also happy his fame did not change him too much.

Murray explained he told Rovers chief executive Andrew Barrowman he was “not going to sit here and beg for my job”.

“I felt I had enough credit in the bank to at least have had a conversation before a decision was made where we could maybe sit down around a table, shake hands even and walk away,” he added.

“But to do it over the phone I felt wasn’t right. You obviously try and evaluate the reasons that they gave, which still don’t make any sense to me.”

Murray has been one of the names linked with the vacant St Johnstone job following the sacking of Craig Levein.

“I’m like any manager, I am open to any offer,” Murray said.

“It’s sad when someone loses their job but that’s the nature of the business that we are in. Unfortunately, you are always waiting for someone to leave and you might have an opportunity.

“There will be more when the domino effect kicks in, which I probably started this season. You have to be ready and I am ready. I didn’t need a rest. I’ve had my rest in the summer, so it wasn’t like I needed to recharge my batteries.

“I have got a lot coming up in the next couple of weeks, which is really, really good – all football related – so I’m really looking forward to all of that. But if a job comes up before that then fantastic.”

Meanwhile, Falkirk manager John McGlynn said “it’s a compliment for all the good work that’s been getting done” to also be linked with St Johnstone after his side’s 43-game unbeaten league run took his side to the League 1 title and an early lead in the Championship.

“I think myself and [assistant] Paul Smith did a really good job at Raith Rovers to get them out of League 1 and then finish third in our first season in the Championship, in a league that contained Hearts and Dundee, and then fifth in our last season,” he said.

“And we’ve come in here and, within two and a bit seasons, we are where we are now. It’s nice to be linked with it, but I’m very comfortable and very happy where I am.”

Nottingham Forest are hoping to one day turn the City Ground into a 50,000-seat stadium, says Reds owner Evangelos Marinakis.

The expansion would go beyond Forest’s existing plans to increase the ground’s capacity from about 30,000 to 42,000 through the rebuilding of the Peter Taylor Stand and extension of the Bridgford Stand.

Those plans and Forest’s future on the banks of the River Trent were in jeopardy when negotiations between Nottingham City Council – which owns the land where the stadium stands – and the club collapsed over increased rent demands earlier this year.

A deal to sell the land to the Premier League club, which was agreed in July, appears to have secured the Reds’ future at their home for 126 years.

“What we need to do is have a bigger stadium,” Marinakis told BBC East Midlands Today.

“We have a lot of supporters and a huge waiting list for season tickets and I’m sure a 50,000-seat stadium will be full watching our team and our passion.”

The Derby della Madonnina is the pick of the weekend’s action as Inter host stuttering rivals AC Milan at a sold-out San Siro on Sunday – and it is a match that could have big consequences.

New Milan boss Paulo Fonseca has won just one of his first four Serie A games – a 4-0 thumping of bottom-placed Venezia last week – and is coming under increasing scrutiny in the Italian press.

La Gazzetta dello Sport reported, external the relationship between Fonseca and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who was brought back to the club as a senior advisor in December, is “delicate”.

It comes from a mixture of underwhelming early results, including the Champions League defeat by Liverpool on Tuesday, and Ibrahimovic’s comments in the press.

“I am the boss and I am in charge, all the others work for me,” Ibrahimovic told Sky Sports Italia, external earlier this week.

But Italian football expert James Horncastle told BBC Euro Leagues podcast, external that many people are unsure exactly what Ibrahimovic’s role at the club is.

“He’s not employed by the club, he’s employed by the owner and that’s across RedBird Capital Partners’ media and entertainment businesses,” said Horncastle.

“But Zlatan only seems to be interested in AC Milan, and living in Milan, showing up at training and unveiling players they’ve signed.

“Are you the CEO? A sporting director? A technical director? What decisions do you make and what responsibilities do you have? If you tell us, we can judge you.

“It’s difficult for Paulo Fonseca to be given time and patience by the fans and by the media – people look at the club and there are all these ambiguities. People look at the club and say ‘who’s calling the shots here?’ And ‘should we trust them?’

“It makes Paulo Fonseca’s job all that harder when you don’t know exactly how the club is run.”

Milan sit 10th but are just three points behind third-placed Inter, who have won two and drawn two of their opening four games and head into the derby on the back of an encouraging goalless draw with Manchester City.

“It will be a derby. We all know what it means for the club and our fans,” said Inter boss Simone Inzaghi. “We’ll face a team of great value.”

Before that, Antonio Conte has the chance to take his Napoli side top of the table on Saturday when they visit Juventus, where Conte won five Serie A titles as a player and another three as manager.

Napoli are eyeing a fourth successive win, following their opening-day defeat at Hellas Verona, and have Romelu Lukaku on form with two goals and two assists in just two games since completing a move from Chelsea before deadline day.

However, it is Udinese who are the surprise Serie A leaders after four games, having narrowly avoided relegation last season.

On Sunday they visit Roma, who on Wednesday made Daniele de Rossi the first managerial casualty in the Italian top flight this season after failing to win any of the club’s opening four league games.